Nintendo Apologetic

1.Offering or expressing an apology or excuse: an apologetic note; an apologetic smile.

2.Self-deprecating; humble: an apologetic manner.

3. **Serving as or containing a formal justification or defense.**

This is the stuff you won't see anywhere else...

Friday, January 26, 2007

Miss me?

OK, so I have been away for a while. Don't hate me, I have moved a couple of times and had no internet for most of the time. My life has been sorta upside down as well.

The upshot is that I didn't blog about the Wii launch. At this point it doesn't really matter what I write, Nintendo was (and is) a screaming success. They sold 1.2 million units worldwide from their launch in November through the end of the year. To date they have sold about 4 million units worldwide in the 2 months since they came to market. In contrast the PS3 has sold about 1.5 million units, which according to Kutaragi could have sold at a much higher price. After all, how can you compare eating at a fancy resturant to eating at fast food? They should want to get another job just to pay for it.

In case you didn't know, the Nintendo Wii seems to be the next gaming craze sweeping the globe. Try this experiment (I have tried it many times to always the same result): Go to a game store (or call if you are lazy) and ask how many Wii's they have in stock. I can tell you the answer.... Zero. Now ask how many PS3s. They will have a few. Now put this in the perspective of Nintendo turning out twice as many units as Sony and you will begin to get what I mean.

And Sony is flopping in a most dramatic way. A fun little quote I saw the other day was from Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director of Valve (Half-life). “The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think It’s really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted. I’d say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a “do over”. Just say, “This was a horrible disaster and we’re sorry and we’re going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it”. The happy story is the Wii. I’m betting that by Christmas of next year, the Wii has a larger installed base than the 360. Other people think I’m crazy. I really like everything that Nintendo is doing. “

It is becoming more and more obvious that developers don't want to spend the extra money and time developing for the finicky PS3. On the other hand, the Wii is selling (surprisingly?) so well that publishers and developers are sitting up and wondering how they can get a piece of that pie. Money is flying folks.

Anyway, I gotta get to bed kids. I will certainly be back online from time to time and I have several things I really want to blog about so check in once in a while.

About Me

... is a hobby aficionado as well as a dedicated husband and father. When he is not busy with his family and pastimes he is pursuing a programming degree and narrowing down his list of potential careers.